UAD still worth it?

[Britishboxer]

but you've already decided that doesn't matter: they only have to sound good because there is no such thing as a canonical Fairchild limiter. frankly, I agree with the overall stance (though not the lack of a canonical specification) but it's somewhat at odds with your position that uad is the only one to consider out of a small selection simply because they have a specific set of measurements.

UAD has the best collection of plugins, plugin alliance also like UAD is a blend of 3rd party developers, I like the sound of the UAD Fairchilds.

[jamcat]

the Neve preamp is in spark, though this might just be an oddity of how it's licensed from ams/neve.

It's been said that it was Neve that didn't want the 1073 to be available for perpetual license outside of Apollo. Personally, I'm kind of suspicious that it's really Universal Audio who is holding back, as an incentive for Spark subscriptions.

But there's also the odd case of the AMS RMX16 reverb and AMS DMX pitch/delay plugins not being included in the UAD Ultimate bundle. Every other in-house-developed Universal Audio plugin is available in it. Only 3rd-party plugins from the likes of Softube and Brainworx are excluded from it... and the AMS plugins, which were developed by Universal Audio, as far as I can tell.

there was a lot of third-party stuff in the last drop, so maybe it's a uad classic like the precision limiter or the Cambridge eq (though that one's probably not a major draw for newcomers). but, really it's a guessing game right now. I just think looking at the money, they want something tempting in the next couple of weeks.

I doubt we'll see the old Precision Mix/Mastering series any time soon, if ever. That would be a huge disappointment for pretty much everyone if Universal Audio put their time and energy into porting those over pretty much anything else. I wasn't suggesting that UA won't be porting more plugins done in partnership with top audio manufacturers. I was just saying the plugins that were developed for the UAD platform by other developers like Softube and Brainworx obviously won't become part of UADx/Spark. But as af as I can tell, aside from the Dytronics stuff that Softube did, all 3rd-party developed plugins are already available native directly from those developers.

But we also can't discount the possibility that some of those audio partners might have imposed some additional restrictions in their licensing agreements.

[elxsound]

Seems to be same thing for Neve Summing in LUNA, which sucks since I was looking forward to adding it at some point.

There’s 4 pages of them saying the same thing, so not like this proves who’s to blame here but just some context to anyone curious.

https://uadforum.com/community/index.ph ... 256/page-4

[jamcat]

Right. Also, the Neve Summing isn't included in the LUNA Pro Bundle. You have to purchase it separately for almost as much as the entire LUNA Pro Bundle costs (if you own an Apollo.)

But, oddly, it was available along with the 30-day Pro Bundle demo that UA gave everyone (on Mac), even non-Apollo owners, when LUNA went native a couple months back.

BTW, do you know if UA has said anything about why Ampex is available for LUNA, but not UADx/Spark, or if that is going to change?

[elxsound]

Right. Also, the Neve Summing isn't included in the LUNA Pro Bundle. You have to purchase it separately for almost as much as the entire LUNA Pro Bundle costs (if you own an Apollo.)

But, oddly, it was available along with the 30-day Pro Bundle demo that UA gave everyone (on Mac), even non-Apollo owners, when LUNA went native a couple months back.

That’s the worst part.. it’s available in the LUNA demo, but you can’t purchase it without first owning an Apollo, satellite or PCI card. Volt series won’t let you purchase it… you must own hardware with their dsp processing in it.

Again, not sure who’s at fault here… Neve vs UA, as the only response provided is that it’s due to how it was structured
So a non-answer, answer.

[jamcat]

Drew from UA posted this earlier today on Gearsputz:

@ Universal Audio any hint on when we can expect a new release?

Next week.

https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.ph ... count=4965

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I'm guessing Helios next or very soon. ATR? Also likely. FATSO or Ocean Way are other strong possibilities. I base this on nothing in particular.

[jamcat]

I'm guessing Helios next or very soon. ATR? Also likely. FATSO or Ocean Way are other strong possibilities. I base this on nothing in particular.

Those are good guesses. Personally, I wouldn't be terribly excited about the latter two, but the first two would be

Another strong contender is the Manley Variable Mu, because they've done a few Manleys already. (Though I'd probably yawn at that one too.)

Other than the Helios and ATR-102, high on my list is the MXR Flanger/Doubler, Echoplex, the UA 610, EMTs, RMX16, 480L, and of course any of the remaining Neves (yeah, I know )

[ghettosynth]

Only hours to go on that 75% off sale. UAD is the new Waves it seems. I think that they've sent me about 30 emails over the last week or three.

[jamcat]

Yeah, but there is a difference between Waves and UAD emails: I didn’t unsubscribe from UAD’s.

[cdbaksu]

I've been sleeping on UAD because of the steep hardware requirements, and wasn't even aware they made the move to proper software, including native Apple Silicon ports.

Was excited when I saw PolyMAX since I love a "simple synth" with a great UI, and man does it sound fantastic! I'm in the process of making a track with it for the OSC this month.

Somehow I missed the whole free LA-2A thing online, and got a code gifted from a very generous person on another forum. Simply the best opto comp I had used so far.

Then I demoed and eventually bought the Ravel piano, and just yesterday I got the Century Tube Channel Strip for effectively half off with a thank you gift for buying the piano.

I gotta say, they all sound and look amazing, and I'm all of a sudden a fan. I can see why the hardware is so popular and expensive. Don't mind iLok for the software, I've never been a hater, have lots of licenses on both cloud and machine, and never had a problem.

Looking very forward to more stuff getting ported over to Native!

[Scotty]

Hopefully we’ll see some side chain appearing on more of their mixing plugins.

I've been sleeping on UAD because of the steep hardware requirements, and wasn't even aware they made the move to proper software, including native Apple Silicon ports.

Was excited when I saw PolyMAX since I love a "simple synth" with a great UI, and man does it sound fantastic! I'm in the process of making a track with it for the OSC this month.

Somehow I missed the whole free LA-2A thing online, and got a code gifted from a very generous person on another forum. Simply the best opto comp I had used so far.

Then I demoed and eventually bought the Ravel piano, and just yesterday I got the Century Tube Channel Strip for effectively half off with a thank you gift for buying the piano.

I gotta say, they all sound and look amazing, and I'm all of a sudden a fan. I can see why the hardware is so popular and expensive. Don't mind iLok for the software, I've never been a hater, have lots of licenses on both cloud and machine, and never had a problem.

Looking very forward to more stuff getting ported over to Native!

[Britishboxer]

Only hours to go on that 75% off sale. UAD is the new Waves it seems. I think that they've sent me about 30 emails over the last week or three.

I hear they are truly the new adobe and waves thing on Russian sites, which is scary, like a digital war...but to compare UAD with waves legally is a far fetch, UAD was always the only alternative to Pro Tools and expensive hardware, they hand cherry picked a collection of plugins alike Plugin Alliance and they have multiple plugs by multiple developers although UAD themselves have great pre.., Waves on the other hand did not really focus on emulations in the past where UAD and Plugin Alliance along with Acustica Audio do.

My honest opinion based on working with all of them is that UAD (especially their Neve API and softube plugs) is on top of the game, Soundtoys, Acustica Audio would be next and some times at par with UAD and slate, then you have Plugin Alliance WAVES etc on the same level depending on what you want., Soundtoys emulations are very cool allowing to blend a number of tones within their plugs, this is becoming the new thing which shows that Kirchhoff-EQ has utilised this idea as many plugin alliance plugs now do such as the Louder Than Liftoff
SILVER BULLET mk2 and more

Emulations by WAVES that did take place since UAD arrived, such as their SSL API, which did not exist before UAD hardware and now native....have mostly been replaced by original SSL, Plugin alliance consoles etc.., but WAVES still has a great dynamic EQ that can do things like Soothe2, they have a number of plugins that are irreplaceable., and to include unique irreplaceable you have Kush Audio, Apogee plugins with Bob Clearmountain, DMG and many more people still are clueless about.

By far the most desired expensive plugins are Soothe2, Softube Tube Tech Comp, SHWAB Digital GOLD CLIP, and many more but these are on top of the game for whatever reason be it hype on soothe2 or price.

[ghettosynth]

Lot of words man, I just mean in terms of their sale behavior.

[_leras]

I doubt we'll see the old Precision Mix/Mastering series any time soon, if ever. That would be a huge disappointment for pretty much everyone if Universal Audio put their time and energy into porting those over pretty much anything else.

I think the precision series plug ins are pretty good actually, at least the ones I have are good.

Even the Precision Mix Rack collection that had GUIs updated is really pretty solid and very low CPU/dsp.